Business: Widespread Hack Leaves 21.5 Million Exposed

An enormous hacking of government computers in the United States has breached the personal information of 21.5 million people. Information that was taken includes social security numbers, addresses, health and financial history, and even some fingerprints. The Office of Personnel Management has issued a statement saying “Every person given a government background check for the last 15 years was probably affected.” The U.S. Government believes this attack is related to another cyber attack, which breached personal information of 4.2 million federal employees. Both of the attacks are thought to have originated in China and committed by the same actor. The breach is the biggest cyber attack on the US government and has many congressmen calling for the resignation of Katherine Archuleta, the director of the Office of Personnel Management. Archuleta, however, is “committed to the work that [she] am doing at O.P.M.” and has promised new security measures at O.P.M. have been introduced, as well as free credit and identity theft monitoring for victims of the attack. The attack has many people questioning the safety of storing sensitive information on technology that can be quite fallible.